Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus to which a cartridge is detachably attachable.
An image forming apparatus forms images on a recording medium using an electrophotographic process. Examples of image forming apparatuses include electrophotographic copying machines, electrophotographic printers (light emitting diode (LED) printers, laser beam printers, etc.), electrophotographic facsimile apparatuses, electrophotographic word processors, and so forth. A cartridge is a process detachably attached to the image forming apparatus main body, which acts upon a photosensitive drum (developing agent bearing member). An image forming apparatus main body is the part of the image forming apparatus from which the cartridge has been excluded.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses using the electrophotographic process have a photosensitive drum, and a process unit which acts upon the photosensitive drum, formed integrally as a cartridge. The cartridge is detachably attachable to the image forming apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus, thereby realizing the process cartridge system.
This process cartridge system enables the user to perform maintenance of the image forming apparatus without depending on a serviceman, which has markedly improved operability.
One configuration for detachably attaching such a process cartridge involves extracting the process cartridge loaded on a supporting member (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-184901).
However, in recent years there has been demand for longer life spans of process cartridges and also increased capacity of toner, in such systems. Answering such demands while also reducing the size of the image forming apparatus is a problem, which is being address by optimizing the location of components within the image forming apparatus. In particular, both increased capacity of process cartridges and reduction in size of the image forming apparatus are being realized in full-color image forming apparatuses, which use multiple process cartridges that take up a great deal of space, by situating the process cartridges in a highly-dense manner with no space therebetween. However, situating the process cartridges in a highly-dense manner may lead to poor usability regarding detaching/attaching and so forth, which may be a constraint regarding further reduction in size.